A suction pump works on creating a low pressure area and relying on outside air pressure to push the water up the pipe. The air pressure at sea level on a standard day is 29.92 in/Hg, and that is roughly the same pressure a column of water 33 feet high will produce. The higher your elevation, the less air pressure you have to push the water up the pipe. The standard lapse rate is about 1 in/Hg every 1000 feet, so in Denver you would probably have <25 in/Hg to push your water up the pipe.
P.S. You should have disqualified pilots from this puzzle too.
Also that 32-33 ft assumes that the pump can create a perfect vacuum - in practical terms I think 28-30 ft would be impressive. Also at such low pressures the water might boil.
We have a water well . It is located about 1/4 mile away from the house. It is a shallow well pump. I don’t know the depth of the well.
The other type water well pump is called a jet pump.Its for deep wells.
The water lines caused the water at this house to run red with rust , you should have seen the bathtub,and I didn’t want to spend lots of cash I didn’t have to replace the lines so we had rural water installed. The well is just used to water cattle and occasionally the garden.
We have a problem around here,Iowa,farm country, with coliform bacteria. That generally means someones cattle lot has contaminated the surface water. These shallow wells are eventually filled with surface water .We also have a problem with farm chemical run off but new regulations are helping that.
In other places the shallow well system gets chemicals from manufacturing plants.
With the shallow well system ,its the only type I have experience with,there is a pipe that goes from the well house into the bored well. at the bottom of that pipe is a one way valve called a check valve that allows water to be sucked up the well pipe and does not allow it to run back down.In the well house there is a pump that is powered by ,in my case ,a one horse electric motor.mounted on the top of the motor and connected to the outlet is a pressure switch. Its adjusted to whatever you want your water line pressure to be.Usually 40 pounds. From that pump it goes to a pressure tank ,about 3’ high and 2’ in diameter. It has a bladder inside that has uses air pressure to force the water out into the distribution lines. when the water from the pump equals 40 pounds pressure the pressure switch tells the pump to quit pumping.
Hope this helps.
justwannano so is the 1hp pump in addition to the well pump or is it the well pump?
Also as this is to be a 2nd ‘vacation’ home what are the issues of leaving the well non used for a period of time. Any problem that you see leaving a faucet running lightly to prevent the pipes from freezing? is there a way to drain the water back into the well?
The only pump is the 1 hp pump.It pushes the water 1/4 mile up hill. it used to supply water to the house and to the cattle waterers. There are 2 waterers. I have to replace galvanized water line about every year due to old rusty pipes freezing.
I guess I should have read your entire question before responding.
Were it me I’d drain the waterlines for winter. Provide a petcock and use an air compresser to blow all water from the lines.
I’d definately leave a faucet dripping as long as I was using the home in the winter.
Build up of bacteria is the problem with leaving it unused. Grandma used to leave the water running for a long period of time to wash them out. I guess it is an individual well situation.
